So vast is Art, so narrow Human Wit

They say wine + email never mixes.
This is also true for strong coffee.

Anniversary dinner menu:
garlic ciabatta bread
baby green salad
baked scallops
angel hair pasta w/ garlic and peppers
dessert...kyle's choice

8 years tomorrow!! Wow. <3

I'm pleased to announce that I started the final weekend of NaNo yesterday morning approximately 10,000 words behind the target goal... and I've reduced that by about half so far. I *heart* writing sprints. I hope to completely close the gap by bedtime tonight.

I got an A+ on my poetry midterm. :D Sweet!

You should read this: The Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti.
It's a very cute poem... with some very dark and sexual undertones.

American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program seeks volunteer drivers in the greater Norwich area to drive cancer patients to treatment appointments. For information, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org

Artworks seeks volunteers to help with art therapy programs dealing with children, teens and adults. Call Artworks at (860) 889-2413.

Beacon of Hope seeks volunteers interested in sharing a smile, listening to others and giving hugs to cancer patients and their families. Call the ECHO Cancer Foundation at (860) 886-8362, Ext. 289.

Community Handbell Ringers Ensemble “Bells of Fire” seeks volunteers. The group practices from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. once a week at Central Baptist Church in Norwich. No experience is necessary, but reading basic music is helpful. Visit www.shorelineringers.org. For information, call (860) 887-8683.

Connecticut Visiting Nurse Association seeks hospice volunteers. Many volunteer opportunities are available, depending on your abilities and interests. For training information, call (860) 859-4133. 

Literacy volunteers are needed to share their love of reading with students. For information, call United Community & Family Services, (860) 889-2648, Ext. 387.

Masonicare Home Health and Hospice will offer a hospice volunteer training program at the Norwich office. It will include presentations from members of the interdisciplinary hospice team. For information, call Terry Reilly at (860) 859-4133. 

Norwich Arts Council seeks volunteers to work on membership, fundraising, programs for the theater and concert series. To get involved, call (860) 887-2724 or (860) 887-2789 or Carol at (860) 822-8412 or e-mail administration@norwicharts.org. Volunteers needed to be gallery sitters/docents from noon to 4 p.m., especially Saturdays. Training provided. 

Norwich Area Food Locker at Central Baptist Church, 2 Union Square, needs powdered milk, peanut butter, canned meats/vegetables, juice and spaghetti sauce. Items may be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. The food locker seeks volunteers to help distribute food one Thursday per month. For information, call (860) 887-4104.   

Norwich Mentoring Collaborative seeks volunteers to mentor children in local school- or community-based programs. For information about how you can make a difference in a young life, call Sharon Crouch at (860) 213-4850 or e-mail norwichmentoring@gmail.com

Nurturing Families Network at Madonna Place in Norwich seeks volunteers for its Nurturing Connections Program, which connects volunteers with first-time parents who deliver at The William W. Backus Hospital adjust to parenthood. During their hospital stay, new parents are paired with volunteers, who provide emotional support, education materials, and resources/referrals to community agencies. For information, call (860) 889-8331, Ext. 2598.

Occum Volunteer Fire Department seeks members ages 16-17 for cadet membership and 18 and older for regular membership. Training and equipment provided. For information, stop by the station at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays or call (860) 822-8285 or (860) 822-6236.

Seniors Helping Seniors needs volunteers to transport clients to medical appointments. For information, call United Community & Family Services, (860) 889-2648, Ext. 387.

Senior Resources seeks Spanish-speaking volunteers to assist the Spanish-speaking elderly population with insurance-related issues, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Medigap insurance. Training will be provided. For information, call Senior Resources at (860)  887-3561.

St. Vincent De Paul Place Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry seeks volunteers to help with breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday and lunch from 10:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. A lunch team is needed the first Saturday of the month to cook, serve and clean up. Help is needed at the pantry, stocking shelves and giving clients groceries from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays. Volunteers needed to pick up bread at area grocery stores, clean tables, vacuum carpets, clean bathrooms and sweep and mop the floors. For information, call (860) 889-7374 or e-mail brsvdpp@yahoo.com

The State of Connecticut Resident Advocates Ombudsman Program needs people to advocate for residents in nursing homes. For information, call (860) 823-3366.

The Thames Area Citizen Advocacy Program Inc. seeks volunteers to befriend and advocate for senior citizens and disabled persons living in nursing and assisted-living facilities. Two hours per week requested. For information, call Donna Goldman at (860) 823-3778.

TVCCA’s Foster Grandparent seeks participants who have 15 plus hours a week and want to work with children in a day care, home or school. This is a stipend program with income requirements. For information, call (860) 444-0006 Ext. 116.

United Community & Family Services seeks caring people to make phone calls to those who need medication reminders, orientation or just to say hello. Call (860) 889-2648, Ext. 387. The Helping Hands Thrift Shop needs volunteers to sort, price and display donations or to run a cash register for a few hours per week. Volunteers also are needed to drive seniors to chemotherapy, dialysis and doctor’s appointments. The “Why Not Read Program?” seeks volunteers to work with individual children an hour a week in the classroom. For information, call (860) 822-4227.

Uncas Health District seeks volunteers for Emergency Preparedness and the Medical Reserve Corp. Roles range from clerical to health professionals and medical experience is not necessary. For details, call the Uncas Health District at (860) 823-1189.

Volunteer artists are needed to teach in the ArtWorks to Empower Expressive Arts studio, 65 Main St. For information, call Marcelyn Dallis-Jones, (860) 889-2413.

I've written an essay.
I've written a poem.

I've never written a poem as an essay.
Such a feat should only be left to the masters.

(Only rhyming couplets, at that...)

My poetry midterm today is going to involve an essay/explication of the poetry of William Wordworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, comparing their poems to their individual ideas of what poetry is "supposed" to be - a topic on which both poets expertly wrote during their time. I'm enjoying it because I really enjoy the Romantics and I also tend to agree with both poets on what poetry is "supposed" to be and what it's "meant" to do ~ I take a little from Wordsworth's theory and a little from Coleridge's. This is the sort of critical thinking that really makes my brain happy; it makes me remember how much I love words, literature, and writing. I'd also like to note, here, how much I love that we must always write about literature and authors in the present tense - their ideas never become "past tense." And it's true, isn't it? All literature that exists today is an answer to and expansion of the literature that existed yesterday; those ideas have not been replaced. They've been built upon. I'm still nervous about it, though...

18,300+ words. Started the day at just below 13,500.
:D
Right on target!

This song, too!

( Read more... )

I really enjoy this song.

10,255 words. The tales are starting to weave around one another now. I'm super happy with how this is turning out. Compared to my last novel... this one is actually editable. Worth doing something with. I even have some cover art ideas in mind. :D *squees*

An overall unflattering picture. This is my zombie wound.

Even up-close it looked like a fresh injury. I'm just so pleased with the results. :D Kyle backed out of the make-up deal, which was disappointing. I had tons of fun with it.

I also made delicious cupcakes:

 

The jello shots turned out really well, and I found the perfect little plastic cups to serve them in. The jello brain, however, did not turn out. I didn't have the proper ratio of water/jello/vodka so it was a little too liquidy... when it came out of the mold, it looked a bit more like intestines than a brain. Still good, though... melon-flavored jello... it was a little like eating a midori sour.

I'll take it as a compliment that so many people asked me what the heck was wrong with my neck.

I used a special kit to make a really nasty bite on my neck. Truly hideous and disgusting. Exactly what I was going for.

Pics later when I'm not as sloshed.

For me, there is nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment I have after completing NaNoWriMo. It was true the first time I tried it back in 2002, it was true last year, and this year will be no different. I don't leave things like this unfinished, you know. It's a commitment. I've signed up. The 50,000 words are as good as written, in my eyes. There is no turning back. Insert other melodramatic cliches here.

It's only 1,667 words per day. It's not difficult - okay, I lied, it's difficult. I almost wrote as much the other night for my poetry essay. I've written as much before. I've written more than that in a day. It's not impossible... just difficult. Difficult especially when you get the first seemingly brilliant ideas out of your head and onto the paper - the temptation to reread kicks in, to go back and edit, to delete, to start over. You don't start over. That's not what NaNoWriMo is about.

Get the words out of your head and onto paper. Type it. Write it. It doesn't have to be in order. It doesn't have to make perfect sense. The characters might have stupid names, if they have names at all. Maybe there's no continuity, and hair color magically changes from brown at the beginning to auburn at the end. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that there's 50,000 words. They won't all be good words. In fact, by the time you're done, most of it will be crap. But there will be some gems in there, glimmers of a Good Idea shining through the garbage. Once you finish your 50,000 words, if you are so inclined, you dig back through and you find those gems. Then you take those gems and you write some more. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The first NaNo story I wrote made the 50,000 words though the story was ultimately incomplete. I never finished it, and couldn't even begin to guess where it may be hiding. My guess is that it's gone forever. My second NaNo story sits, as a novel proof, on my bookshelf with the other books - cracked open only a few times as I contemplated burning it. Last year, the people who run NaNo did a really amazing thing for the people who finished the 50,000 words: they allowed them to get a free proof version of their novel from createspace.com. Rumor has it they're doing the same thing this year.

There will be a write-in at Otis Library, November 9th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. I'm going to try my best to make it. :D Even sans lap top... I plan to go the ink-and-paper route.

Besides the sense of accomplishment, I really just enjoy the challenge of writing daily. I never write anymore unless it's for an assignment, for work, or for this journal. Last year, writing for NaNo became something I looked forward to every single day, more and more as the month progressed. And now, I'm looking forward to having that feeling again. It's really... quite exhilarating.

Midnight tonight... NaNoWriMo officially begins!
My third attempt, and (hopefully) my third win. :D
*cracks knuckles, loads word processor*
BRING IT ON.

Last minute costumes have been decided:

I'm going to be a zombiefied goth girl, who happened to be hanging out at the cemetery when the dead began to walk the Earth once more... I'll be complete with zombie bite on my neck. :D

Kyle is going to be the zombie that got me, so he'll have blood and fleshy bits around his mouth.

I've never done make-up like this, but I have a seemingly endless supply of fake blood (in various forms) so I think I'll be able to pull it off.

If not, we'll just be a bloody mess. :D

Talk about a psycho hose beast... is this guy serious?
Gee, I wonder why she didn't call him back...

"It is our job to make women unhappy with what they have."
B. Earl Puckett, Allied Stores Corp.
1953

(Seeing as I'm a quarter of a century old now, I think I should start going back to the gym so I may continue aging gracefully.)

Yesterday was a very nice day in spite of the wind, rain, and cold. I stayed home most of the day and worked a puzzle, talked to my family, snuggled under a pile of blankets. Went out to dinner with Kyle (sushi at our favorite place) and had a few drinks. :D Glad I didn't have to work yesterday... it's always nice to have some downtime nowadays.

Yesterday was also the first birthday I've ever celebrated sans photographs. I take a picture of myself on my birthday every year and I didn't do that yesterday. Now I'll never be able to look back and say, "See? This is what I looked like the very day I turned 25."

I'm 25 today.